The Speaker of the House is in a dire political position. It is perhaps the most unstable his unstable leadership tenure has been. There is no leadership control. It appears to have been conceded the far right of his Party who now apparently control the strategy of the GOP entirely. Unless Democrats suddenly cave to Tea Party demands – which they have no reason to, especially given that the majority of the public blame Republicans for the shutdown – then there is no victory for Speaker Boehner. There is only catastrophic failure for his legacy as Speaker of the House. One that has no real end game for him, but resignation.

In interviews this weekend, the Speaker attempted to shift the narrative from a shutdown over the Affordable Care Act, to a shutdown over the debt limit. It seems Boehner’s original plan had been to pass a clean CR, and to then use the debt limit as leverage for spending cuts. This plan was thrown into the flames not be the Speaker of the House, but by a junior Senator from Texas who had no end strategy, no plan to ensure coverage for the 870,000 uninsured children in his own State, but instead spent time reading Dr Seuss. The Speaker is completely at the mercy of the Cruz Republicans.